EU Repeal Bill Faces Hellish Passage

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EU REPEAL BILL FACES HELLISH PASSAGE Edelman 14 July 2017

Lucy Thomas Head of Brexit Advice

Pawel Swidlicki Brexit Analyst

Lucy.Thomas@Edelman.com

Pawel.Swidlicki@Edelman.com

EU REPEAL BILL FACES MYRIAD OF OBSTACLES Yesterday saw the publication of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, the bill originally conceived of as the Great Repeal Bill. Described by Brexit Secretary David Davis as “one of the most significant pieces of legislation that has ever passed through Parliament”, the Bill’s key functions are to scrap the 1972 European Communities Act – which gives effect to EU law in the UK – and to transpose a vast swathes of EU legislation directly into UK law so as to provide certainty and continuity for businesses and consumers. Put simply, passing the bill is an absolute requirement for a smooth and orderly Brexit. However, the Government has been given advance notice by the Opposition that it will seek to frustrate the passage of the bill when it comes before the Commons properly in the Autumn (and that’s before it even gets to the Lords). Labour has set six key conditions it must meet while the Liberal Democrats have promised to ‘string it up like a Christmas tree with amendments’, and outgoing leader Tim Farron has warned it will face months of “parliamentary hell”. Meanwhile from the first ministers of Scotland and Wales the warning was clear: unless there are changes to reflect devolved administrations, they would not give their backing. In a rare joint statement, Nicola Sturgeon and Carwyn Jones called the bill a “naked power-grab, an attack on the founding principles of devolution and could destabilise our economies.”

Back in Westminster, as a result of the new parliamentary arithmetic, as few as seven Conservative rebels would be enough to derail its passage, and as we have set out previously, around 1 in 4 Tory MPs back a softer form of Brexit than that set out by Theresa May in her Lancaster House speech. On a practical level, other questions to be answered focus on how the myriad European regulatory bodies, such as Euratom, the European Medicines Agency and others will be replaced, or whether the UK will seek some kind of continued or associate membership. EU law currently refers to all such bodies, so difficult decisions on how a whole range of sectors will in future be regulated are approaching apace. We set out the key flashpoints below: European regulatory bodies There are around 30 EU agencies and regulatory bodies that the UK is a member of which are directly or indirectly related to its single market membership – these deal with the regulation of specific sectors (such food, medicines, banking, chemicals and aviation safety) through to wider issues such as health and safety at work and vocational training. There are also a further 15 or so bodies dealing with EU co-operation in other areas, from policing through to the environment and gender equality. In all of these areas the UK will have to decide what relationship it wants to retain with these bodies, e.g. formal membership, observer status or a clean break, and whether new UK bodies need to be set up or whether existing bodies need to be expanded and given new powers. Much will depend on the closeness of the new UK-EU relationship. For example, in a joint letter to the FT last week, Business Secretary Greg Clark and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt wrote that “the UK would like to find a way to collaborate with the EU in the context of public health and safety… we will continue to work closely with the European Medicines Agency.”


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